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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Australian Indigenous & Oceanic Art
• Sale Date:
  06 Jun 2016 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  1
• Lot Description:
  Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa
  (1920-1989)
  Untitled (1972)
  synthetic polymer powder paint on composition board
  61 x 45.7 cm
• Provenance:
  Private collection, Victoria; Thence by descent; Private collection, Victoria
• Notes:
  The appearance of a previously unknown ‘board’ by a founding Papunya Tula artist is an exciting prospect but the emergence of an early painting by Kaapa Tjampitjinpa is especially noteworthy. It was, after all, Kaapa who initiated the new approach to painting at Papunya and who was responsible for several critical innovations that propelled the movement through its first fragile years.1 The following essay will confirm the current work is from Kaapa’s hand, and that it was produced at a critical juncture in the development of contemporary Indigenous art. The assessment is based on the comparison of the material and stylistic attributes of the work, with those of better-known paintings by Kaapa and his cousin and collaborator, Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri. This essay focusses on the formal attributes of the painting, rather than its mythic associations. Whereas ‘Papunya boards’ were once clumped in a single category, recent scholarship has revealed developments were occurring at a rapid pace and, given the benefit of hindsight, in a fairly constant direction. Changing materials, the presence or absence of figuration, compositional templates and the approach to embellishment can be used to define a sequence of distinct phases. Determining chronological sequence of these phases is important as it reveals the interaction between artists. It is no longer sufficient to date a Papunya board to 1971 or 1972, for the month or at least a season in which the work was created is critical to understanding the context of its production. Much of what can be learned about the evolution of Papunya painting is derived from a detailed analysis of nineteen consignments, dispatched from Papunya to the Stuart Art Centre by Geoffrey Bardon or Pat Hogan, between July 1971 and August 1972.2 However, the consignments did not capture every work by particular artists. This is especially so with Kaapa, who is famous for his independence of mind and entrepreneurial spirit.3 Whereas the current work does not bear a consignment number, its unanticipated appearance conforms with Kaapa’s penchant for selling his paintings and artefacts to expatriate workers and visitors to the community.4 The celebrated Papunya Men’s Painting Room was in full swing when Bardon left the community in August 1972, and artists continued to work tirelessly until Peter Fannin was appointed as the first manager of Papunya Tula Artists in December 1972. Johnson refers to this period as the ‘interregnum’ and the current painting dates from that mercurial phase when the art blossomed, without the influence of non-Indigenous advisors.5 The current work is painted on a regular sheet of Masonite, presumably cut for the purpose on a bench saw at the Manual Training Centre in the heart of the community. The paint has been thinned to enhance its graphic qualities. The palette conforms to that introduced by Bardon in February 1972. Kaapa was a masterful technician whose paintings were meticulously planned and executed. His paint is applied sparingly, suggesting the artist’s familiarity with the technique of his relatives, the Hermannsburg watercolour landscape painters.6 This composition is anchored with nine, unadorned concentric circles, evenly spaced along the edges and at its centre. There are fourteen additional roundels distributed within the external perimeter. Each of the smaller roundels is decked with irregular dots to emulate anteth, the chopped downy feathers used in men’s ritual. A network of looping sinuous lines links the circles to create an elastic space filled by a membrane of fine white dots. The graphic certainty of Kaapa’s composition is animated by the subtle variations in the dots and dashes that veil the red earth. The delicacy, transparency and hue suggest an affinity with Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Yala (1972).7 The overall effect is of subtly interweaving levels, suspended within the template of larger roundels. The composition could only have come about as the result of intense experimentation whereby Kaapa and Leura sought pictorial resolution within the constraints of a governing rectangular format. They created a rigorous planar view, in which the emergence, travels and subsequent reentry of ancestors into the earth, could be expressed through the sophisticated manipulation of circle, line and dot. It is worth noting that their inventions, evident in the current painting, have informed the work of subsequent generations of desert artists. This painting’s composition, sinuous lines and veil of white dots, closely recall the treatment of Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, Ngalyipi (A Small Snake) (1972, Collection of John and Barbara Wilkerson, New York). A work signed ‘KaoAA’ and dated 12/72.8 The veil of white dots that confounds and intrigues the eye when viewing Ngalyipi is also apparent in Tim Leura Tjapaltjarri, Bushfire Spirit Dreaming at Napperby, (1972, Collection of John and Barbara Wilkerson, New York) and Untitled (Bushfire Dreaming) (1972, private collection, Melbourne). The compelling similarity of these boards was highlighted when all three paintings were hung in series at Tjukurrjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art at the National Gallery of Victoria.9 The current work can be considered part of the series created as Kaapa and Leura were exploring the capacity of the painted dot to emulate anteth, the very stuff of ceremony, applied to the earth to create ‘ground mosaics’ and on the bodies of ceremonial performers. As well as being delicate and mesmerizing in its own right, this fine painting, demonstrates the intimate collaboration that drove two of the most important Papunya Tula artists. This recently rediscovered board by Kaapa Tjampitjinpa is most likely to have been painted during the interregnum, in the spring of 1972, at the climax of a period of extraordinary experimentation. John Kean 1 Vivien Johnson, Once Upon a Time in Papunya, Sydney, University of New South Wales Press, 2010, pp. 11-43. 2 These dates are based on Hogan, ‘Notes and Inventory for the Early Consignments of Pintupi Paintings’, in Dot & Circle: A Retrospective Survey of the Aboriginal Acrylic Paintings of Central Australia, Melbourne, RMIT, 1986, 55-57. Hogan assembled consignment 19 when she visited Papunya after Bardon’s departure. Evidence suggests that the visit is likely to have occurred later in the year, than stated in the published account. 3 John Kean, ‘Kaapa Tjampitjinpa’, in Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art, Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, 2011, pp. 104-6. 4 Peter Thorley and Andy Greenslade, ‘Between Locals: Interpersonal histories and the 1970s Papunya art movement’, in Indigenous Participation in Australian Economies II, Canberra, Australian National University E Press, 12.05.2015. http://epress.anu.edu.au/ 5 Vivien Johnson, Lives of the Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, IAD Press, 2008, p.73. 6 Vivien Johnson, Streets of Papunya: The re-invention of Papunya painting, Sydney, New South Publishing, 2015, p. 43-5. 7 See, Aboriginal Art, Sotheby’s, Melbourne, Monday 31, July 2006, no 84. Illustrated. The painting bears the Stuart Art Centre number 19278A and is therefore from Consignment 19 (see 2. above). I am indebted to Luke Scholes, of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, who informed me on the arcane contingencies of various consignments. 8 Peter Fannin probably inscribed the date on the work when he assumed the position of manager; it is most likely that the painting was produced in the weeks before it was dated. 9 NGV Federation Square, Melbourne, 30.09.2011–12.02.2012.
• Estimate:
  A$15,000 - 20,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.